Buying items in RPGs for real money is nothing new. People have been doing it since the 90's. Back then it was frowned upon by most everyone - even developers. So what has changed? Why now has it become more acceptable? Why now are so many companies making it easy for the player to become more powerful with a simple swipe of their credit card? I believe there are a number of reasons.
- The number of online RPGs in todays gaming world is staggering when compared to ten years ago. There are so many options to choose from for the player, that it has become increasingly difficult for companies to maintain a strong player base. Players are constantly and more frequently hopping from game to game unwilling to commit any significant amount of time to a single game. Because of this, in order for a game to survive, companies have had to take the plunge and allow players to purchase powerful items or other benefits for real money.
- The majority of players and developers have lost touch with what an RPG is supposed to be. Being able to buy in game items with real money completely goes against the core elements of a great RPG. Either people have forgotten this fact, or this new generation of gamers is completely ignorant to it. I greatly fear the latter.
- Capitalism is a double edged sword. It is the reason technology exists as it does today(in my opinion), and therefore the reason video games exist. However, for too many people, money is more important than making a great game.
There are many reasons that we as players play RPG's, but in order to expand on the subject matter of this article, we are only going to focus on a few. Immersion, risk reward, and time reward.
In Diablo 3 there are 4 ways to acquire items (as far as I know). You can loot an item (Risk reward). You can receive an item as a quest reward (Immersion / Risk reward). You can buy an item with in-game currency (Time reward). You can buy an item with money you earned from working your real life every day job. One of these methods does not require the player to actually play the game. Therefore, this method should not be a feature that is included with the game. Why would a player want to cheapen their gaming experience by doing this? There is a certain high you get when you accomplish something in a game, and are rewarded accordingly. A sense of accomplishment. You completely bypass this very immersive and very real feeling when you spend $5 to receive the same reward. And this next part is very important.. Knowing that other players are receiving the same rewards you rightly earned without them ever having to play the game kills immersion in the exact same way. One of the common arguments supporting this horrible idea is, "You don't have to participate in the real money auction house if you don't want to". Wrong. What other players are able to do in game affects my immersion factor greatly.
Another common argument is, "Players would buy items 3rd party for real money anyways, so Blizzard is just making it safe, and official. There is nothing wrong with that". Again, wrong. Not too long ago buying items online was considered cheating, and looked down upon by the gaming community, as well as developers. I remember in days of Everquest if your character was ebay'd, you were the laughing stock of the server. The quoted argument is also wrong because while yes, players have always bought items online (though against developer policy), they took huge risks in doing so. Those risks included getting scammed, or getting your account permanently banned. Now that Blizzard has removed these risks, many many more people are going to be cheating their way to the top. Yes, buying in game items for real life money is flat out cheating, no matter which way you spin it.
Another argument supporting the real money auction house is, "Now we won't have to deal with spam bots, and constant advertising for gold and items." Yes this is a true statement. However making a true statement doesn't make it good. This is like saying "Instead of fighting against something that is bad, we are just going to accept it and even embrace it." Sounds silly right? Developers should work hard to get rid of gold farmers or item sellers. Remove the cheating that exists in your game. Don't embrace it. I'd rather play a game where I was getting spammed than a game where you're allowed to cheat.
I'm going to make a statement here... In an RPG, anything that affects your character, or the game world in which your character exists, should ONLY be a result of events happening inside the game. The more the game commingles with variables in the real world, the less immersive the game is, and the more devalued items and player achievements will become.
Sony, Bioware, and Blizzard have all now taken the plunge... Let us hope that Valve does not follow in their footsteps.
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